TAXATION: Federal Sales Tax?

Should the U.S. have a federal sales tax?
Last week a committee of businessmen told the House Ways & Means
Committee, which is trying to draft a tax bill, that it should.

Their proposal was important. It represented a growing body of U.S.
opinion, which feels that only with the help of a national sales tax
can the U.S. finance its rearmament program and remain economically
sound. There is nothing new in the sales tax idea. National sales and
purchase taxes date back to ancient Rome and Athens, are used in some
form...